Loch Sween

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On Sunday 10th July there was no wind, so we motored the 16 miles north from Gigha to the entrance of Loch Sween and then on to the pretty town of Tayvallich, which is 7 miles into the Loch.

Entering Loch Sween from the Sound of Jura

We passed the ruin of Sween Castle on the starboard bank.

Sween Castle

Finally, we turned to port to approach the rather small entrance gap into the well protected natural harbour of Tayvallich.  We had downloaded the latest set of "Antares" charts from Bob Bradfield onto my iPad and used these to tease out the best way in.  Since 2009, Bob has been producing and updating a set of specialist inshore charts of Scottish anchorages with his own surveys and these are an invaluable supplement to the less detailed data on conventional charts.

The entrance gap into Tayvallich (port side)

Secured to a visitors buoy in Tayvallich

We rowed ashore to find a pretty and well-kept village with an accent on holidaymakers.  There is a pub, a general store and café as well as a smart landing pontoon.

The next day, we took a walk to the nearby Taynish Nature Reserve and followed the circular path that took us through the ancient woodland along the side of Loch Sween.  We also passed a Lochan (or small loch) and the ruins of an old mill that used to grind all the grain from local farms.

The Lochan at Taynish Nature Reserve

The Old Mill at Taynish Reserve

Along the way, we found cherry trees and were able to pick and eat ripe fruit from these - lovely!

Before evening, we moved from Tayvallich to anchor in the neighbouring Fairy Isles, that were highly recommended both by friends and the pilot book.

Anchored amongst the seals and Herons in the beautiful Fairy Isles

Next day, we set off in the dinghy to explore and rowed through the maze of little wooded islands that form the Fairy Isles Nature Reserve.  Some parts were very shallow and we squeezed over entrances to hidden bays that were carpeted with mussels, much to the pleasure of the local Oyster Catcher birds.

Paddling through the Fairy Isles

More Fairy Isle shores

Mussels in the shallows

We had worked out a proposed route for our next set of travels that should take us eventually to Oban to pick up crew on Saturday 23rd July - and our next stop is planned to be Craighouse on Jura (providing there is space on their visitors' buoys, as the kelp is too thick for anchoring so we are told).

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